The Catholic identity crisis

By S.E. Cupp

Apr 08, 2009 | 12:53 AM

As Easter approaches, in addition to looking upward, Catholics would be wise to look inward this year, and ask themselves one very important question: Who are we?

Many Catholics are angry that the University of Notre Dame, a private Catholic institution with a 90% Christian enrollment and a crucifix in every classroom, has asked President Obama to speak at its coming commencement.

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Francis Cardinal George, archbishop of Chicago, called the invitation an "extreme embarrassment" to Catholics, who consider right-to-life issues among the most fundamental to their faith. Archbishops in Milwaukee and Newark made similar statements. And pro-life students at Notre Dame have formed an opposition group called ND Response, which is leading the charge against Obama's arrival and promises action when and if Obama cometh.

Their collective outrage is understandable. Obama is one of the most liberal pro-choice Democrats on record, and someone whose abortion position is, even by some liberal accounts, extreme. From supporting partial-birth abortion, to opposing born-alive protection for infants, to his suggestion that doctors could be forced to perform abortions even if it is against their religious convictions, the President's views have left many - including non-Catholics - uncomfortable and wary that he will actively attack the pro-life cause.

But the university, an influential Catholic mouthpiece here in the United States, is standing behind its invitation, and its president, the Rev. John Jenkins, has said he cannot foresee any reason to rescind it. Furthermore, it seems as though Notre Dame students, not including those who have joined up with ND Response, are overwhelmingly in favor of Obama's participation in their graduation. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, student letters to the school's newspaper are 70 to 30 in favor of the President's visit.

If it looks like there's an identity crisis within the Catholic contingent, there is - but the divisive episode at Notre Dame was hardly the catalyst. This is a continuation of problems Catholics faced during this presidential campaign and campaigns past, and it's hurting their message and their influence.

Before Obama was elected, the Rev. Jay Scott Newman, a pastor in South Carolina, warned his congregation not to vote "for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists." Newman was immediately rebuked by his own diocese for "politicizing abortion," hardly an apolitical issue and one that Catholics have in fact rightly politicized for years.

While the Catholic leadership around the world condemned candidate Obama for his abortion views, Catholic individuals proudly proclaimed they were backing Barack, either choosing to overlook his views on abortion, or believing his so-called progressive vision of hope was indeed a more convincingly Christian outlook than John McCain's.

Either way, Catholics can now consider themselves wholly responsible for helping to put Barack Obama in office. He captured 53% of the Catholic vote, and the largest advantage among Catholics for a Democrat since Bill Clinton. So the outrage now over a Catholic embrace of the President by a Catholic university, while understandable, seems a bit delayed. If right-to-life issues are truly the backbone of modern Catholic liturgy, and Catholics are in agreement that abortion is a deal-breaker, the election should have been a no-brainer for McCain.

But there is a disconnect among Catholic leaders. While much of the clergy opposes Obama - Catholic bishops gathered in Baltimore just days after he was elected to implore the new President to fight for the unborn child - institutional leaders like Notre Dame's president seem more open to his role as influencer.

Even more alarming for Catholics, though, should be the gap between leadership and laity. A number of lay professors at Notre Dame, which is 80% Catholic, have spoken up in support of the President's arrival. Alumni support of his visit is said to be more mixed than student support, but hardly hostile.

John Daly, the media coordinator for ND Response, explained the divide. "Notre Dame's campus is more conservative than most colleges," Daly said, "but students here were definitely impressed by Obama last November. He was a rock star. Even if they didn't agree with his principles they were more than willing to overlook them because of his charisma." If that's true, Catholics voters of any age who turned a blind eye to Obama's abortion positions got the President they deserve - big on style, questionable on substance.

Catholics have always played an uneasy role in presidential politics. Candidate John F. Kennedy was questioned for being too Catholic and had to publicly back away from any perceived allegiance to the Pope. More than 40 years later, John Kerry wasn't Catholic enough, and so we watched him awkwardly cozy up to Catholic voters by publicly attending Mass. And last year, 53% of them seemingly put one of the most important tenets of their belief system on hold and anointed a pro-choice President. If Notre Dame is having a hard time explaining its invitation to Obama, Catholics will have an even harder time explaining their vote in 2008.